And why are there so few media art works in contemporary art exhibitions? Media arts, namely art forms that engage the capacities and affordances of recent and emerging technologies, are still largely missing in contemporary art exhibitions and spaces. In an age of rapid proliferation, consumerized adoption and normalization of media technologies coupled with what can be characterized as an institutionalized neglect of media arts in museums and art spaces...
For the 154-year-old Metropolitan Museum of Art, “modern and contemporary art” has always been at the core of its existential query. Though the encyclopedic museum began to collect and display “art of the present” in the early 20th century, and the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art has been established since 1967, contemporary art at The Met has often been treated with intense scrutiny. As the Modern and Contemporary Wing...
The history of curating has to be rewritten, abandoning its etymological and museological moorings. The presentation questions the foundational principles of modern museum practices since their emergence in the 17th and 18th centuries into their neoliberal avatar, locating them in regimes of what Achille Mbembe describes as necropolitics (a subjugation of life to the power and technologies of death). Drawing on case studies and theoretical frameworks offered by artists, curators...
Panelists | Gunalan Nadarajan (Dean Emeritus and Professor, Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan), Lesley Ma (Ming Chu Hsu and Daniel Xu Curator, Modern and Contemporary, The Met, New York), Sabih Ahmed (Director, Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai), Yu-Chuan Tseng (Professor, Graduate Institute of Art and Technology, National Tsing Hua University), Jau-Lan Guo (Associate Professor, Graduate of Fine Art, Taipei National University of the Arts), Manray Hsu (Independent...
The international proliferation of biennials in recent years has resulted in criticism and debate as to the relevance of this model for exhibition-making. These discussions often overlook the important specificity of place that underlies the planning and conception of most contemporary biennials. A biennial can and should feel a part of the place in which it is realized – reflecting its people, culture, concerns, and geography. In this presentation, I...
The global nature of a pandemic reveals the intricacies of our relations, especially the significance of that which previously appeared distant or conveniently overlooked. As exhibitions and travel resume their pre-pandemic schedules, we are left to ask if we have fundamentally changed after its wide-reaching disruption, even if just by a little. After all, it is from little and cumulative movements that great shifts occur. The challenge of climate change...
The concept of “island chain” was formulated by former U.S. Secretary of State SecState John Foster Dulles in 1951 during the Cold War, referring to West Pacific islands. It is a geographical concept with political and military implications. As a part of the island chain, Taiwan is located at the junction of land and sea, where continental history and Austronesian history converge to create diverse, complex vocabulary and where aesthetics...
Cultural events are always resemblances of how different communities work together and strengthen their collective identity through local art forms and knowledge. How does curatorial practice could go further to create “social spaces” for artists and communities with different backgrounds? In the age of digital media where connection is easily mediated through technological devices, to connect and to imagine a way of being together and sharing become a significant political...
Panelists | Hoor AI Qasimi (Director, Sharjah Art Foundation), June Yap (Director, Curatorial and Research, Singapore Art Museum), Cheng-Yi Chien (Chief Curator, Exhibition Department, Taipei Fine Arts Museum), Alia Swastika (Director, Biennale Jogja Foundation), Hsiang-Ling Lai (Director, New Taipei City Art Museum), Chia-Jung Yeh (Director, Hong-gah Museum), Yi-Hua Lin (Artist Director, mt.project), Pei-Yi Lu (Director, MA in Critical and Curatorial Studies of Contemporary Art, National Taipei University of Education). Moderator...